Video threat suspect arrested before German vote

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police said on Friday they had arrested a 25-year-old Turkish man they suspected of posting an al Qaeda Internet video threatening Germany with an attack after Sunday's federal election.

Separately, al Qaeda's media arm issued a message with English and German subtitles in which Osama bin Laden urged Europeans to end their alliance with the United States and pull their troops out of Afghanistan.

In a further development, a spokesman for Germany's Federal Crime Office said it was examining what appeared to be a video released by the Taliban, but declined to comment on its content.

German magazine Spiegel reported in its online edition that the Taliban video contained threats to attack Germany and included pictures of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and the Frankfurt skyline, as well as of Germany's defense and interior ministers.

Police in the southern city of Stuttgart said the arrested man was not believed to have been involved in producing the video he posted, in which an al Qaeda member threatened Germany with a "rude awakening" if Berlin did not leave Afghanistan.

They said it was not clear where the suspect, arrested on Thursday, obtained the material.

He was "known to the authorities as a supporter of Islamist activists, and had been in the focus of investigators for some time," a police statement said.

"The unemployed suspect, who lived alone, was apparently intensely active on notorious Internet platforms."

Germany has 4,200 troops serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

Three videos have been posted in the past week featuring an al Qaeda messenger, identified by the German interior ministry as German-Moroccan Bekkay Harrach, saying Germany will pay a price if voters back a government that supports the deployment.

"The authorities are clearly very nervous. You can see the heightened security presence, especially at American installations in Germany," said Guido Steinberg of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

The latest bin Laden message did not threaten new attacks and contained no mention of Germany, except to note that thanks to the financial crisis, "the heart of Europe is no longer number one in world exports."

But the use of subtitles to address a German audience so close to the election appeared calculated to heighten the authorities' unease. Germany has already stepped up security at airports and train stations before the vote, in which conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win re-election.

POTENTIAL TARGETS

"We've raised security to a level appropriate for the scenario and it will stay at this level for the time being," Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris told a government news conference on Friday before the arrest was announced.

"Within 14 days there have been five messages that all in different ways represent a threat to Germany. We are taking these seriously and reacting to them."

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday took the unusual step of warning Americans in Germany to be vigilant. The German government played down the U.S. travel alert.

Unlike other European countries such as Britain or Spain, Germany has not experienced a major attack by Islamist militants on home soil in recent years, although authorities say they have thwarted plots here.

In 2004, Islamist militants killed 191 people with bombs placed on Madrid commuter trains three days before a Spanish general election.

"Germany is a federal country so there are significant potential targets all over the place," said Peter Neumann, director at the Center for Defense Studies at King's College London. "But the focus of concern is on transport hubs, especially in view of the Spanish precedent -- subways, buses, trains and airports."

(Additional reporting by Paul Carrel and William Maclean, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Michael Roddy)